ShareThisGrowing up, preseason college football rankings were always highly anticipated because they came out in the summer just before a new season was about to begin.
There wasn't a lot of chatter in the offseason, so the Top 20 (there was no Top 25 back then) was somewhat a mystery.
The Associated Press and United Press International were the polls of record, and as an Alabama boy I couldn't wait to grab the paper and see where the Crimson Tide and Auburn were ranked -- as well as Notre Dame, which was a program you were required to dislike as part of citizenship in the Cotton State.
In the modern era of ESPN and instant gratification via the Internet, there is no mystery.
Some preseason polls come out before the previous season is even cold.
A day after Florida put the finishing touches on Oklahoma to win the national championship for the 2008 campaign; Rivals.com had already pegged the Gators as No. 1 for the following year.
CBS Sportsline waited a week, but it also picked Florida to repeat.
As a matter of fact just about every poll I've seen has coach Urban Meyer's bunch at the top of the heap, including Sports Illustrated -- which released its 2009 preseason top 10 last week.
Obviously at this stage of the game -- fall practice doesn't even start for another three months -- these polls are little more than conversation starters. But I have to admit, Florida looks like one of the safest bets in prognostication history.
Scatback Percy Harvin is gone but QB Tim Tebow is back, along with a pretty darn good supporting cast on offense.
And defensively?
It's not even fair.
All 11 defensive starters are back. When was the last time that happened?
Not only are they back, but it's the same bunch that led the Southeastern Conference in scoring defense last season and limited the mighty Sooners to 14 points in the BCS National Championship Game. Oklahoma, if you remember, averaged just over 51 points per game.
The Gators were ninth nationally in total defense in 2008, and they held down the opposition with a whole lot of young guys.
UF defensive coordinator Charlie Strong has to be giddy.
I gave up on the crystal ball business a long time ago, but if anyone asked me my choice I'd have to jump on the Gainesville bandwagon.
Say what you want about Meyer -- the guy can be prickly -- but he's probably the best college football coach in the game right now.
And thanks to what Steve Spurrier started back in the 1990s, Florida is one of those schools that recruits the best athletes in the nation without having to try all that hard.
Yet that doesn't stop Meyer from trying hard, and getting exactly who he wants.
On the one hand, it's silly to have preseason rankings so far in advance.
Then again, it's silly not to pick the Gators No. 1 again.
(Contact Scott Adamson of the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., at adamsons(at)independentmail.com.)
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